by Force, Marie
“No one did. We kept it quiet for obvious reasons.”
“I have to say, though, I wondered a few times when I saw you two together. There was definitely something…”
Whatever it had been was definitely over now. Adam thought about the morning he’d spent with Abby. Now that was something—something sweet and fun and sexy—and yet pure, too. He already knew with one-hundred-percent certainty that she’d never treat him the way Sasha had.
“Adam? Still there?”
He realized he’d punched out on Rick. “Yeah, I’m here.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I want to fight for what’s mine.”
“Right there with you. Since I had a feeling you might say that at some point, we’ve been all over it for a couple of days now. I think you’ve got a very solid case, and with your approval, we’ll move forward with filings.” Rick outlined the strategy his team had put together to fight Adam’s ouster from the company. They had come to the conclusion that discrediting Sasha was the first step in what might be a long battle.
It would get ugly, Adam thought. Someone he’d once cared deeply about would become his enemy. If he succeeded in regaining control of the company, he’d have a mountain to climb in restoring CSI’s reputation in the business community while also repairing the damage done to the morale of their workforce. The question became—how could he not pursue it?
“Do it,” he said to Rick. However it turned out, he’d figure out the way forward the same way he always had—one step at a time.
“I’ll keep you posted.”
Adam ended the call and took a few minutes to regain his equilibrium and then got up and continued on to Grant’s house. He pounded on the door for several minutes before Grant appeared with a towel wrapped around his waist, his hair dripping.
“What the hell?” he asked Adam as he pushed open the door to let him in.
“Thought you were sleeping the day away again.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’ve been up since eight and actually getting some work done, which is a welcome relief.”
It was a welcome relief to Adam, too, to hear that Grant was having a better day. “That’s good news.”
“You know it. Want something to drink?”
“I could use a drink drink, if you’ve got anything.”
Grant stopped and gave Adam an inquisitive look. “What’s that all about?”
“I just agreed to file suit to get back the company my now ex-partner and ex-girlfriend stole from me.”
“I’d say that warrants a midday drink.” Grant rooted around in a kitchen cabinet and produced a bottle of whiskey. “Will this do the trick?”
“Bring it, brother.”
Grant poured several fingers worth in a short glass and handed it to Adam.
“Join me so I’m not drinking alone?”
“Not today. Not when I’m finally getting back to work.”
“Fine. Be that way.” Adam downed the shot in one big gulp, feeling it burn its way through his insides.
“More?”
“In a minute maybe.”
“So what gives with the company?”
Even though he hadn’t come here to talk to Grant about that, he told him anyway. And when he was done, Grant reached for Adam’s glass, poured him another shot and pushed it toward him on the counter.
Adam tipped his head back and downed it.
“Feel better?”
“Surprisingly, yes, I do. Sorry to unload on you when you’ve got enough of your own shit going on.”
“Trust me, I’d much rather focus on your shit than mine.”
“You know… The McCarthy brother bartending skills work both ways. Whenever you’re ready to talk about it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Adam nodded as his stomach tightened with the realization that it was now or never on the subject of Abby. “There was something else I wanted to talk to you about if you have another minute,” Adam said, diving in before he could rethink his way out of having this conversation in the first place.
“What’s that?”
“Abby.”
Grant’s brows furrowed with confusion. “What about her?”
“We ran into each other on the ferry yesterday and unloaded on each other about our ugly breakups. Then I ran into her again last night when I was out looking for you.” Adam didn’t bother to mention that he’d dragged her out of a bar and spent the night in her hotel room. Some details were better left unmentioned.
“So?”
“So I kind of like her. I like talking to her, and she gets what I’m dealing with. I was wondering if you’d have a problem if I hang out with her.”
This time Grant’s brows narrowed in obvious annoyance. “Define ‘hang out.’”
“Do I really have to?”
“Yeah, I think you do.”
“You know, hang out… and stuff.”
“That clears it right up. Are you asking me if I mind if you have a fling or whatever it’s called with my ex-girlfriend?”
“Ah, sort of. Yeah.”
“Hell, yes, I mind! She’s not like that. She doesn’t fool around with random guys and then move on to the next one.”
Adam decided it wouldn’t be wise to mention Abby’s recent changes in philosophy on those matters. “I’m not a random guy, Grant. It’s me. You know I’d be straight up with her. We’re both raw after what we’ve been through and looking to have some lighthearted fun. I like her. I think she likes me. That’s all it is.”
“Did you like her that way when I was dating her?”
“Get real. I never gave her a second look when she was your girlfriend, and you know it. Bottom line—she’s not your girlfriend anymore. You’re happy with Stephanie. Why should you care if I hang out with Abby?”
“I don’t want you to hurt her, Adam. I did enough damage where she’s concerned. That’s why I’d rather you found someone else to hang out with.”
“But I like her. She gets what I’m dealing with. She’s not looking for anything more than something fun—same as me. Is that really such a threat to you?”
Stephanie stepped through the back door, startling them both. “Why are you threatening him?” she asked with a teasing smile as she went up on tiptoes to kiss Grant’s cheek.
He put an arm around her, giving Adam a warning glare over her head.
“I’m not threatening anyone,” Adam said, looking directly at his brother as he said the words.
“Good,” Steph said. “No bickering allowed in our house.”
“That’s right,” Grant said.
“Then I’d better get out of here,” Adam said. “I’ll see you guys later.”
Grant followed him to the door. He grabbed Adam’s arm. “Adam…”
“Aah!” Adam pulled back his recently tattooed arm.
“What?”
“Sore arm. Long story.” He put a hand on his brother’s chest to stop the conversation. “I heard you, Grant.”
“So what’re you going to do?”
“Have some fun and do no harm. I promise.”
Grant nodded but still looked annoyed as Adam walked down the stairs to the driveway.
The crushed shells crunched under his feet as Adam made his way out to the road that led back to town. All the way, he could feel his brother watching him.
“What was that all about?” Stephanie asked after Adam left.
Grant turned to her, and she could see that he was angry. “Nothing.”
“You’re getting awfully good at keeping things from me. Should I be worried?”
His shoulders seemed to lose some of their stiffness. “No.” He came back into the kitchen and put the cover on the bottle of whiskey. That had been the first thing she’d noticed when she came in, after, of course, the visible—and unusual—tension between the brothers.
“Kind of early for whiskey, isn’t it?” Stephanie asked the question casually, mindful of his fragile sta
te and not wanting to make anything worse.
“It was for him. Not me.”
“What’s up with him?”
“He’s had some issues with his company. He’s working it out, but it’s been tough.”
“Oh. So why did you seem pissed with him when I came in?”
Grant leaned against the counter and folded his arms, his gaze fixed on her as if he was trying to decide what he should say.
The longer the silence stretched between them, the more anxious Stephanie became. She wished she didn’t automatically go to worst-case scenario every time the slightest thing went wrong, but her tumultuous life before she met Grant had given her ample reason to do so. “Never mind,” she said, unable to bear the tension for another second.
“Wait.” He paused, his jaw pulsing with tension, which was never a good sign. “I want to tell you what we were talking about, but there’s almost no way to tell you without making you think I want something that I don’t.”
“Oh, well, if that’s all it is...”
He shook his head and blew out a deep breath. “He wants to date Abby.”
Stephanie hadn’t seen that one coming, and suddenly she couldn’t seem to breathe as she recalled what Adam had been saying as she came into the kitchen. She sucked in a breath and fought to maintain her composure. “Why would he think you’d be threatened by that?”
“I’m not threatened by it. Not at all. I want you to hear me on that. Do you?”
As she nodded, her mind raced and her palms were suddenly damp.
“Say it. Tell me you heard me.”
“I did,” she said haltingly. “I heard you.”
“Come here.”
Because she couldn’t stay away, Stephanie crossed the room to him, stopping in front of him. “I’m here.”
“Closer.”
She moved another inch forward.
“Closer,” he said with the sexy grin she hadn’t seen since before the accident.
A happy gasp escaped from her tightly clenched jaw, releasing all the pent-up tension with it.
He put his arms around her and looked into her eyes. “I love you. I don’t care if my brother dates her. I will care if he hurts my friend, however. I don’t want to see her hurt again. She’s had enough already. Okay?”
“You…”
“What, Steph?”
She forced herself to look up and meet his gaze. She forced herself to ask the question. “You don’t think it would be weird to see him with her?”
“Maybe the first time. And the second. After that, it might seem less weird. But it’s no threat to me—or to us. I promise.” He dipped his head and kissed her, softly at first and with more intent when she responded with greedy enthusiasm. It had been a very long week.
Her hands coasted over his chest and up to link around his neck. She couldn’t get close enough to him.
Judging by the way his arms tightened around her and the thrusts of his tongue, he felt the same way. “Missed you,” he said between kisses.
“Me, too. I’ve missed you so much.”
“I don’t like that furrow between your brows,” Grant said, placing a kiss on the area in question. “I don’t like that you think what we have isn’t going to last.”
“I wish I wasn’t like that. You don’t know how badly I want to believe that everything is going to work out perfectly. I’m just not wired that way. I have visions of you seeing your brother with Abby and wanting her for yourself again.”
“That’s not going to happen. I wish he’d chosen to ‘hang out’ with someone else, but not for the reasons you think. It’s because she’s been through a lot. I don’t want anyone, especially my own brother, trifling with her. She deserves better.”
“Adam is a good guy. Your father didn’t raise any other kind. Any woman would be in good hands with you or one of your brothers.”
“That wasn’t always true for me. I didn’t treat her the way she deserved to be treated.” He kissed her forehead and nose on the way to her lips. “I’m trying hard not to make the same mistake with you. Don’t let me, okay?”
“I won’t.”
He nuzzled her neck, placing kisses in places he knew made her crazy. “I’d be lost without you, Steph. You were the one thing that kept me going out there. Thinking about you, getting back to you…”
It was the most he’d said about the long day in the water, and she had to refrain from urging him to keep talking. Judging from the press of his erection against her belly, he wasn’t in the mood to talk.
“I was so scared,” she said, choosing to focus on how she’d felt rather than pushing him to share more about what’d happened to him. “We’ve had so little time together, and all I could think about while we waited to hear something was whether that would be all we’d get.”
“We’re going to get so much more,” he assured her. “We’re going to get everything.”
She wanted so badly to believe him.
“Do you have to go right back to work?”
Looking up to gauge his meaning, she found his eyes blazing with heat she hadn’t seen since before the accident. She had a million and one things to do at both restaurants, but none of that was as important as him. “Not necessarily. What’s on your mind?”
He smiled as his hands moved over her back in a gentle caress, working downward until he cupped her bottom and lifted her.
Stephanie curled her legs around his waist and held on tight as he walked them into the bedroom, stopping in the hallway to press her against the wall and kiss her senseless. God, she had missed him and this. It’d only been a week, but it felt like a lifetime.
Without breaking the kiss, he came down over her on the bed and made fast work of pushing clothes out of the way.
“Hurry, Grant,” she whispered urgently as she squirmed under him. “I can’t wait.” He had her on the verge of exploding with only the press of his body against hers and the hot, intense kisses.
He pulled back from her only long enough to free himself from his clothes, surging into her with a quick thrust that had her arching her back to get him deeper.
Stephanie reached the first peak seconds after he entered her, crying out with the thrill of it.
“Ah, Christ, that’s good,” he groaned, pushing hard into her to ride the wave of her climax.
She opened her eyes and saw him watching her, still hard and moving slowly inside her.
“That was quite something,” he said, brushing his lips against hers and sending a riot of sensation rippling through her that started the climb toward a second release.
“I was pent up.”
He laughed and gathered her in tight against him. “Take this off,” he said, tugging her shirt up and over her head and releasing the front clasp on her bra. “Much better,” he said as his chest hair rubbed against her nipples.
Stephanie tightened her arms around him, closed her eyes and focused on enjoying every second of their reunion. For so many hours she’d feared never seeing him again, never holding him, never making love with him, never talking to him or waking to his gorgeous face on the pillow next to hers.
As he dug his fingers into her hips and picked up the pace, it became clear to her that she never would’ve survived losing him. Her life, too, would’ve been over—at least the life that she’d come to love almost as much as she loved him.
“Grant…”
“What, honey?”
“Love you. More than anything.”
“Me, too. Me, too.” He pushed hard into her, tipping her over the edge again. His muffled cry against her shoulder and the surge of heat within her only made the ride sweeter. Everything was sweeter when they did it together.
For a long time afterward, she held him tight and gave thanks for all they had. The rest faded away, unimportant. She had everything she needed as long as she had him.
Laura and Owen emerged from the clinic into afternoon sunshine. Her legs were rubbery beneath her, making her tighten her grip on his
arm to remain standing. “I…I need to sit,” she said. Her hands were trembling, and her skin felt clammy.
Owen steered her to a bench in the middle of a small garden outside the clinic’s main door and sat next to her, seeming equally shell-shocked.
“Say something,” she said after a long period of stunned silence.
“I have no idea what to say.”
“Did that really just happen?”
“I think it did.”
Lightheaded and nauseated, Laura bent at the waist, forcing fresh air into her lungs.
He rubbed comforting circles on her back. “Are you going to be sick?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Are you?”
Owen laughed, relieving some of the tension. “Not sure yet.”
Laura sat up straight, moving slowly in deference to the lightheadedness, and turned to him. “How are we going to do this? Can you tell me that? Three babies in one year and a hotel to run?”
She knew she sounded slightly hysterical, but who wouldn’t be after Victoria confirmed that the stomach flu wasn’t the flu after all but indeed another pregnancy—and this time she was expecting twins? Apparently, she was six weeks along. A transvaginal ultrasound had revealed two strong heartbeats.
Owen massaged her shoulders. “First, take a deep breath.”
Gazing into his familiar gray eyes, she did as he directed.
“Now take another.” After she inhaled and exhaled a second time, he said, “Keep breathing, Princess. No matter what happens, we’ll deal with it.”
Laura hated the hysterical tension that gripped her chest, the tears that pooled in her eyes and the overwhelming need to cry that came with them. “A year ago, you were footloose and fancy free, living the good life. It was a big enough deal for you to take on Holden—and me. But this... It’s just too much. You’ll be running for your old life—”
He kissed the words off her lips. “Stop. I’m not going anywhere. And for your information, I never lived the good life until I lived with you—and Holden. It’s not too much. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted.”
“That’s not true! You never wanted any of it!”
“I had no idea how much I wanted it until I had it. Don’t you see?” With his hand on her face, he compelled her to look at him. “I didn’t know what I was missing. How could I know, growing up the way I did? I love you, I love Holden, and I’ll love our babies, too. I promise.”